


i've got a heart that weighs a lot

by deerie



Category: Teen Wolf (TV)
Genre: F/F, F/M, Future Fic, M/M, Multi, Other, Pack Polyamory - Freeform, Pack feelings, Polyamory
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-08-21
Updated: 2012-08-21
Packaged: 2017-11-12 14:51:57
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 719
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/492378
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/deerie/pseuds/deerie
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>
  <i>It shouldn't work, but it miraculously does. It's more than Derek deserves.</i>
</p>
<p>I just want everyone to love each other and be happy. So I wrote it.</p>
            </blockquote>





	i've got a heart that weighs a lot

Derek fixes the charred shell of the Hale house. A construction crew comes in and later, much later, a house emerges. It's beautiful.

It doesn't look exactly as it did, but that's okay. It still holds the memories of his family: of Laura, laughing brightly and teeth glinting in the daylight; of his mom, covered in flour because she loved to bake but had no talent for it; of his dad, sitting in the den talking with Uncle Peter; of his siblings and relatives and everyone who lived in their sprawling house. The house now has new spaces, though, spaces to fill with new memories. He has a pack and though they don't erase the pain of losing his family, they cover it like a bandage, sooth it away, make it bearable. They teach him to remember the good.

Some nights, though, some nights are bad. Some nights he feels so heartsick and though he doesn't forgive Peter for taking his sister away from him, he knows that Peter has forgiven him for the things Derek thinks are his fault. Derek is angry that Peter isn’t the uncle he remembers, but it’s the type of anger that is fading with time. Some nights, Derek seeks out Peter and they sit in the room that used to be his father’s den, not quite close enough to touch, and Derek pretends he can hear the sounds of their family that this house used to hold.

On those nights, it's usually Stiles who finds them. Stiles who is too forgiving, Stiles who is too kind for Derek, Stiles who takes broken things and fits them back together, Stiles who finds Peter early one morning and whispers, "It may not be okay, maybe never, but I'll forgive you so Derek doesn't have to."

It's Stiles who finds Derek on those night where his heart burns red hot and pulls him up and presses cool kisses to the soft skin of his jaw, because this is what trust feels like: family, comfort, love.

There is more good than bad nowadays. There are nights where the pull of the moon is an afterthought, nights where nothing breathes sour down the backs of their necks, nights where they pile in the front yard or in one of the bedrooms. Those are the nights Derek keeps pressed between his ribs, underneath his heart, beside his wolf. Those are nights where his wolf doesn't claw to come out, doesn't howl loud enough to rattle his bones, doesn't rage because it doesn't have to. He has a pack now, and while they may be a misfit match of young adults, they're his.

The things Derek would do for his pack - the things he has done - are endless, tantamount to true love, and sometimes he imagines there is something tethering each of them to the others, knotted between Derek and Stiles, connecting them to the rest of the pack: to Scott and Allison and Lydia and Jackson and Isaac and Erica and Boyd. A tangled mess that even spans out threads to Peter, to the people his pack adores.

It shouldn't work, but it miraculously does. It's more than Derek deserves.

 

In the morning, Derek finds Scott wrapped around Allison on the couch. She reaches out a hand without looking to grab the nearest person. Today it's Derek and he lets himself be pulled down as they shift and rearrange and reach out in a way that is effortless. Allison smells like the floral perfume she always wears and of sun-kissed skin and Scott smells like boy and dirt and the forest.

Derek can hear Stiles laughing at the kitchen table, feet tangling and bumping with Boyd's, and the click of Boyd's spoon against his bowl. Peter's at the coffee maker and Derek can hear the steady drip-drop of fresh coffee.

He hears Lydia and Erica wake up, the way their hearts beat out of sync at first, and he can imagine Lydia pressing her hand against Erica's hip, the slide of their mouths.

Isaac and Jackson stumble out of the bathroom, towels around their waists and hair wet, and they smell clean and satisfied. Derek rumbles, a content sound, and Allison laughs and says, "That tickles," and wraps her arms around his middle.

_It’s enough_ , Derek thinks, _it’s enough._

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks for reading! I hope you enjoyed this little ol' fic of mine.


End file.
